Ex Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread

This was my Jolabokaflod/Jólabókaflóð gift this year - books about books are catnip to me, but I'd have loved it for the illustrations and binding alone - it's just a really attractive book.

The author, who's a literary critic for the New York Times in her day job, has assembled 100+ books she thinks are not only worth reading but also re-reading. Most of these are not run-of-the-mill canon books, and she includes a mix of fiction, non-fiction, memoir and poetry. Most were titles I'd never heard of; most for solid reasons concerning my own reading tastes. There's a heavy theme of dystopia throughout that I think is a mistake - we might be living in dark days, indeed, but referencing, or tying books back into, our specific times and show more our specific monkeys will have the unfortunate effect of dating this collection before its time.

There were almost a dozen books, though, that I've added to my list books I'd like to pursue at some point. Most are non-fiction, a few - like the Federalist Papers, the speeches and writings of Lincoln, and Washington's Farewell Address have been on the radar for years, but there are a couple of memoirs, a book about Bell Labs and at least one work of fiction I discovered by reading this collection. My TBR didn't need the additional heft, but I suspect it will be a better, more well-rounded TBR for having these titles added.

If you're looking to expand your reading horizons, or are just a TBR masochist like I am, this book provides fertile ground, in spite of its dystopian slant towards collective self-loathing; between all the 'world has gone to hell' titles there are quite a few gems that are sure to appeal to a multitude of tastes. And did I mention the (hardcover) book is gorgeous? show less

Very USA-centric, Political & Trumpphobic
Review of the Clarkson Potter hardcover (2020)

I'm a sucker for books about books, so when I saw Kakutani's 100+ Books to Read and Reread listed, I didn't hesitate. I imagined that it would be an overview of classics to modern day, perhaps geared to favourite books that Kakutani hadn't been given a chance to review during her career as the New York Times chief book reviewer.

While my assumption was correct about mostly classics & contemporary fiction (& surprisingly a lot of non-fiction), there were about 20 or so books inserted for what seemed like the purpose of discussing American democracy, politics and/or world dystopias with no opportunity missed to take a swipe at Donald Trump. It is like show more Kakutani didn't get it all out of her system in The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (2018) and just had to keep on going. This dates and rather spoils this otherwise well written collection badly. You may think that I'm exaggerating here, but when your entire review of George Orwell's 1984 (1949) is about Donald Trump, I'd say there are some issues there.

The book had the added oddity of using frequent pull quotes* as if to pad the material as is done in newspaper and magazine articles.

To end on a positive note, the collection is wonderfully illustrated with about 27 imagined book covers by the chalk artist Dana Tanamachi, who has illustrated at least several real-life covers previously issued in the Puffin Chalk series such as Peter Pan (Puffin-Chalk 2014), Pippi Longstocking (Puffin-Chalk 2013) and The Wizard of Oz (Puffin-Chalk 2014).

Trivia and Links
*Pull quote is the term for when a quote is pulled from an article (usually in a magazine or newspaper) and duplicated in a larger font block of text inserted on the page in order to emphasize it. See various definitions at Magazine Designing.

See several examples of Dana Tanamachi's imagined book covers at her Instagram

See a timelapse video of Dana Tanamachi designing her cover for "Peter Pan" on Vimeo here. show less

Ex libris. What does that even mean?
Adverb: used as an inscription on a bookplate to show the name of the book's owner:
Noun: ex libris (noun) · ex libris (plural noun): a bookplate inscribed to show the name of the book's owner.

Origin: Latin, literally ‘out of the books or library (of someone)’.

While I’m not too hot on the title (the sound and visual throw me), Ex Libris--100 Books to Read and Reread is a book devotional by Michiko Kakutani, famed senior book critic for the New York Times (now retired). Published in 2020, that terrible year, this book was one of the better things to emerge from the maelstrom. It’s a lovely volume, with beautiful illustrations by Dana Tanamachi that give the book as much merit at least as the show more text itself. Beautiful end papers and book titles illustrations are delightful and give an emotional lift with their vibrant colors and design. The contents are arranged alphabetically by the authors’ surnames.
I assume these are 100 of Ms. Kakutani’s favorites; hasn’t she read everything written at least in 2 centuries? The reviews are combinations of the original book review published in the NYT and additional remarks, perhaps written for this publication. Titles go back as far as The Odyssey (Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation) and as recent as On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous; books about work and vocation by various authors, and books on democracy and tyranny, a topic of great concern to Ms. Kakutani when Ex Libris was published, no doubt because of Trump’s presidency. She has a searing distaste for him, and I salute her for it.
I don’t think it’s available in paperback; while available in audiobook, it’s best read as a hand-held book, at least to appreciate the illustrations. Non-glare heavyweight 5x8 pages await your comments. 304 pages. Blank pages at the end for personal additions. A thoughtful layout makes this volume feel like a gift from one book lover to another. show less

I dipped in and out of this over many months and thoroughly enjoyed it. It offers a condensed commentary on a hundred different books, many of which were new to me. And when you're done reading it - it's a pretty little thing on your shelf.

A lovely book, small in format but not content, with colorful woodcut illustrations throughout. I had anticipated reading it gradually, perhaps one or two recommendations at night before going to sleep. But once I started I found myself pulled forward, eager to learn the reasons she recommended these books.

Some of my own favorites showed up here - [b:All the King's Men|5527|All the King's Men|Robert Penn Warren|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342193852l/5527._SY75_.jpg|900927], [b:The Woman Warrior|30852|The Woman Warrior|Maxine Hong Kingston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541333110l/30852._SY75_.jpg|1759], [b:The Movie-goer|25417283|The Movie-goer|Walker show more Percy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429853495l/25417283._SY75_.jpg|1209450] among others. And there were others that I had passed on, and will continue to leave unread despite Kakutani’s enthusiasm for them.

Her need to recommend books that examine the distressed condition of the world at this moment in time, the effects of political, technological, and ecological forces on individuals and nations, is evident throughout. But so is her eclectic side; Keith Richard’s autobiography, [b:Life|13373906|Life|Keith Richards|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480438496l/13373906._SY75_.jpg|14323907], gets high marks from her.

I’ve added a few of her recommendations to my TBR, and I will be keeping the book close at hand for future suggestions. show less

Kakutani, Michiko. Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread. Clarkson Potter, 2020.
Michiko Kakutani recently retired as a book reviewer for the New York Times. Ex Libris offers her a chance to give brief reviews to an eclectic group of books she has found memorable. Some are recent reads like Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, some are established classics like Moby Dick, and others, like Dr. Seuss, go back to her earliest experiences as a reader. She writes her Dr. Seuss review in the style of one of his poems. She is an accomplished stylist, and one finds little to argue with in her critical assessments. Most of the works are on the serious side, Winesburg, Ohio, and The Origins of Totalitarianism, for example. But there are show more exceptions, notably Judd Apatow’s Sick in the Head, a collection of interviews with comedians. If you are looking for something to put on your want-to-read list, you will find some good stuff here, whatever your taste. 4 stars. show less

If I had read the Table of Contents before I purchased this, I would never have bought it. Far from being "books to read and reread," this is a list, for the most part, of currently hot authors and topics. Most of her selections will not stand the test of time.
If you are really looking for recommendations of books to read again and again in your lifetime, this is most definitely NOT it.